Etymograph

English

evirate

Evirate comes from Latin ēvirātus ‘emasculated, having been deprived of manhood’, from vir ‘man’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- ‘to hunt’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyh₁-1‘to hunt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wiHrós2‘man’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wiros2‘a man’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvir3‘man’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēvirō3‘to emasculate’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēvirātus3‘emasculated, having been deprived of manhood’perfect passive participle of ēvirō
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1624evirate3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin vir
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English evirate
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1624, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy: […]: “Some philosophers and divines have evirated themselves, and put…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weyh₁-Wiktionary, Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós‘to hunt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wiHrósWiktionary, Latin vir‘man’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wirosWiktionary, Latin vir‘a man’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvirWiktionary, English evirate‘man’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēvirōWiktionary, English evirate‘to emasculate’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēvirātusWiktionary, English evirate‘emasculated, having been deprived of manhood’perfect passive participle of ēvirō
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1624evirateWiktionary, English evirate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1624, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy: […]: “Some philosophers and divines have evirated themselves, and put…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- ‘to hunt’

previous, obvious, violent, voyage, convey, violation, inevitable, vengeance, envoy, trivial, trivia, avenge, violate, vis, venison, deviation, ochre, deviant, vindication, viaduct, vim, inviolable, violator, trivium, obviate, 50 more

through Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós ‘man’

wer, 3 more

through Latin vir ‘man’

virtual, virtue, virtuous, virtuoso, virile, virility, virago, 3 more

Today it means

verb To castrate.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “evirate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós, Latin vir. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- / evirate

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